


Dominus

by BSplendens



Series: Dominus Silvarum [1]
Category: Basically some 'verse with mutants and such, But I really wanna make a movie out of this guy, DC - Fandom, He fits into a lot of universes, I'll probably go with DC, Marvel, Or anything fantasy-related, X-Men
Genre: Bad things happened to this guy, Body Insecurities, Everlasting flame, Gen, He's a zombie and he does not like it, ISSUES I SAY, Kirin, Kirin with self-esteem issues, Mentions of burning alive, Mildly suicidal person, Spoiled rich brat warlock, Suicide attempt mentioned, The issues are not related to that, They're related to other things, Trans Character, You're welcome to suggest tags, Zombie, Zombie kirin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 16:39:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3903370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BSplendens/pseuds/BSplendens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An OC of mine who I'd really like to make a movie from. Two words: zombie kirin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dominus

**Name:** Dominus Silvarum (Latin for Lord of the Forest)

 

 **Age:** Several centuries, lost track.

 

 **Sex/gender:** Male for both

 

 **Sexuality:** Straight-ish. Not interested in a male kirin or overly masculine creatures, might be interested in a feminine male or someone fairly androgynous. Kirin sexualities tend to be fairly flexible. 

 

 **Height:**  Easily 8' 5", depends on how his head is tilted and his antlers are held. 

 

 **Additional physical details:** Hands are structured similarly to a deer's hooves. He actually has two thumbs, though his hands aren't terribly delicate due to the large bones in the middle two fingers. Powerfully built, quite strong, and heavier than he looks thanks to the additional mass in his alternate form. Missing pieces of himself all over due to burn damage and initial rot before the fire had fully combined with his magic. Gut area is mostly gone, aside from his stomach, ribcage is stripped bare of flesh across the front. Heart suspended by a few tendons and vessels, sickly purple-orange flames visible if his jacket is open. Suit is actually illusion-crafted, he can banish it if he likes. He just tends to keep it on, since, ya know, undead. And naked without the clothes. And ashamed of himself. Skin is covered with very short fur, aside from bits on his ankles and a short mane down his back. All remaining fur is patchy, and this is especially noticeable on his ankle-ruffs. Since he still eats, his tongue and stomach have gradually repaired themselves. His black tongue is long and powerful, strong enough to wrap around a tree branch and pull it down into his mouth- like a shorter version of a giraffe's tongue. Also, his front teeth (small and loose on deer) are deeper-rooted and sharp. He can and will eat meat, and given the chance, he will gladly tear the heart out of something and eat it raw. He doesn't tend to kill for a meal, but anything weak or sick is fair game. Since this is a secondary form, it shifts slightly in appearance and isn't always stable. Sometimes he has a long tail or a pair of deer-like ears, and his antlers occasionally change shape if he shifts fast. Always the same number of points, though, and that's a point of pride. A kirin's antlers are a symbol of power and masculinity, and he's rather proud of his. Don't break them unless you'd like to be stabbed with whatever's left. 

 

**So what IS that guy anyway?**

A kirin, but also the total opposite of a kirin. 

I should explain kirins first. They originated in East Asian mythology, as Qilins. Qilins look like dragon/chimera/deer hybrids, and they're often depicted bathed in flame. They're omens of prosperity and serenity, and they're thought to symbolize the arrival or passing of a sage or ruler. Kirins are a Japanese form of these, usually shown as a more deer-like version of a Qilin. However, thanks to people's tendencies to grab onto interesting myths, typical depiction of one has evolved. If you ask someone what a kirin is (and they actually have some idea) they'll probably describe a draconic creature resembling a deer, something that protects forests. There are many different depictions of kirins at this point, and the below description is my personal take. 

Kirins are draconic creatures that closely resemble deer, though they usually have long tails, scales, and other features not common to deer. They are often described as forest spirits, though they are living creatures. Their life-force is connected to their forest home; if it flourishes, so does the kirin. If the forest suffers, the kirin weakens. If a kirin's forest is destroyed, the kirin often dies, and at the very least it becomes very weak and must find a new forest in order to survive. Kirins possess very powerful healing and regeneration abilities, linked to their forest. Unless you destroy the brain, it's nearly impossible to destroy the kirin.   
Kirins do not usually kill. They do not, however, attempt to prevent other creatures from killing. They understand how the food chain works, and predators are free to hunt as they wish. Kirins are mostly herbivorous, but will sometimes eat from a fresh kill, and sometimes the more intelligent predators under their care will bring them gifts of food. Occasionally, if there is a lack of predators, they will kill sick prey animals to help stop the spread of disease.   
Wherever a full-form kirin steps, a small splash of life appears- tiny ferns, mushrooms, seedlings, occasionally a sapling or an insect of some sort. They have some amount of control over plant life, and can speed the growth of things like trees and thick vines if needed, but they usually cannot mutate said plants beyond what is normal.    
Kirins typically learn a form of shapeshifting once they reach adulthood, and can have up to three forms. The equine form is their original. What you see here is an example of the first new form they learn, the midway or forest spirit form. Deerlike head, hooves, odd hands, and often the long tail. The second new form is a human form, which is just what it sounds like. The human form is quite difficult to learn, and of course, it's useless to Dominus here. He looks like something demonic.   
Kirins  can't speak English or any other human language, thanks to their jaw and mouth structures, but they learn psychic communication. They can't read minds, it's comparable to a cell phone. You can call someone's cell phone and ask them to answer, but you can't (or shouldn't be able to) read what's on the phone. Same idea with the communication. They can "talk" to humans or other sentient beings regardless of what language the being speaks, since it's mental communication that doesn't rely on any spoken language. 

**Yeah, that doesn't answer the question. He is NOT that.**

Not any more. See, a kirin is basically packed with life energy. If you can earn one's friendship, a few kirin tail hairs will mean you live at least a decade longer before you die of old age, and you're harder to kill. If you don't mind killing a rare symbol of life, though, a kirin skull, brain, or tail will get you at least a century. A heart will get you several centuries. A hide worn as armor will make it near impossible to kill you. Therefore, a kirin is an extremely valuable prize. And some spoiled little rich kid with inherent magic found out about that. Money will get you a lot, and the kid found himself a spell for everlasting fire, flames that can't be extinguished until they run out of fuel. So he went out and found himself a kirin... and started lighting the kirin's home forest on fire. He thought burning the forest down would kill Dominus, or at least weaken him enough that he could be killed. 

Dominus didn't take him seriously. Spoiled brat with a bit of magic? Annoying, but not a threat. The flame, though, the flame smelled like death and destruction. His first reaction was an attempt at extinguishing it... but the flames jumped over and caught him. 

Dominus burned to death. There was no way for him to put out the flame, and his forest was burning down around him, so his magic was getting weaker and weaker as the flames consumed more and more of him. 

Once his body was burned down to a skeleton and tatters of scorched flesh, the rich kid tied a rope around him, tied the other end to a helicopter, and flew off back towards his private little island. 

**So why is he not dead** **?**

Technically he was, but his heart was the last thing to burn. A kirin's heart is where all its power is stored, and the flames somehow combined with what was left of Dominus' life-magic. It probably couldn't be replicated. Whatever happened, the bit of flame left in his heart jumped to the rope and ate through it, and he ended up on a mountaintop. He'd been twitching before that, so the brat who killed him decided to leave him for a few days and be sure he wasn't gonna start moving again. After all, dead kirins don't walk away.

Except Dominus did. It took a day or two, but he got up and staggered away. Took probably a week of muddled pain for him to be capable of anything other than staggering blindly around and chewing on anything that seemed reasonably edible in an attempt to make the flame stop burning the inside of his chest. After that, his tattered stomach and diaphragm had regenerated enough that he could eat a meal and keep it inside him, which meant the fire had enough fuel that it stopped trying to get at his ribcage. 

A piece of the flame has kept itself alive in Dominus' chest, more specifically on his heart. He no longer feels any pain so long as the flame remains confined, but it starts to hurt pretty badly if the flame runs low on fuel and starts chewing on his ribcage. He can eat just about anything flammible, technically, but he prefers thing with plenty of life-force in them. That's things like leaf buds, animals (particularly the hearts), and flowers. 

Dominus here is now the opposite of a kirin. A living kirin is the embodiment of life, rebirth, and the life-force of their forest. Dominus is the embodiment of death and destruction, really. Wherever he steps in full form, poisonous mushrooms and little twisted brambles spring up, and his kirin form oozes black smoke from his chest and head. He smells faintly of death and tends to accidentally attract vultures, and they still manage to recognize the remnants of the kirin's magic. Thanks to that, they recognize him as something not dangerous. Everything else smells the death and destruction on him and flees in terror.   
Kirins often have some sway over animals. Dominus still has that... in a way. Most of it is fear. He smells of flames, death, and destruction, so most animals run away from him. The ones that don't are the scavengers, the ones who associate the smell of death with food. Rats, jackals, vultures, hyenas, and the like. He can't completely control them, but he can highly influence them. For example, put him in New York and he can call all the rats from the sewers around him and send them after someone. 

It's not wonderful for someone's self-esteem when they go from a monarch, a protector of a vast forest realm, to a monster that terrifies what he once was supposed to protect. Even his own kind are disgusted by him... he's an abomination. And he's fully aware of it. 

He fully intends to track down and kill the one who did this to him. And it will be messy. 

 

 **Other:** Can be a bit prideful. He's a former king, after all, you can't really blame him for being rather haughty at times. Besides, people are really stupid. 

Despite what you might think, he has no objections to things like farming animals for food. His POV is simple: If you are smarter than something, you are its master. If you are its master, its ruler, you may do as you wish with it. However, to be a good ruler, you should not abuse it. Farming and pets are just fine so long as the animals are being treated kindly, but he doesn't like people who use their sentience to hurt things that can't fight back. And he doesn't like that the environment is kinda suffering quite a lot, he thinks humans are foolish little things for doing that and not fixing it. 

Still has a thing about fire. He burned to death, after all, and that's a horrible way to go. He'll never admit it, but fire kinda freaks him out, even though it can't possibly hurt him. 

He has days where he'd probably put that fire out, if he knew how, days where he's ready to do whatever it takes to just get himself out of this body. It's not the vague scent of death, he doesn't smell that any more... it's the fact that he's a mockery of what a kirin should be. If someone says the wrong thing, he ends up sitting in a figurative pit of self-loathing. Some days he's okay with himself (particularly after his undead-ness has just helped him beat someone he was really quite unhappy with), but some days suck. 

He jumped in a lake a month after he returned. Thought it might put the fire out. It didn't work, it was just really uncomfortable. The fire doesn't like water (or vacuums) but it won't go out unless it runs out of fuel. Ripping his heart out of his chest and surrounding it with un-burnable stuff might work, but he can't reach his heart, he'd just end up lighting his hands on fire trying. 

He does have a sense of humor, but it can be just a little bit odd. 

He's quite supportive of transgender people, and he finds it really odd that humans are so bothered by the concept. See, kirins are reasonably flexible in both gender and sex. If they feel uncertain about their gender (to those who aren't sure: gender refers to mental state, sex refers to whatever parts you have), there's a potion that can be made to sort of 'freeze' them. They keep growing, but they don't hit puberty until they take a counter-agent, so they have time to figure out what gender they are. If they're (for example) physically male but identify as female, and they figure it out before puberty, they can spend a few days in one of several spots, eating a certain type of herb. That triggers a change that results in what is basically a hermaphrodite, but with the former parts (male parts in this case) undeveloped and more or less useless. There's also a way they can end up as a hermaphrodite, if that's what feels like. Dominus is aware that it's not as easy for humans, but he doesn't get why humans aren't supportive of transgender people. Or gay/bi/pan/ace/etc people. 

Dominus was (most likely, there's a chance I'll change this) born physically female. He figured out quite young that he was male, so he was able to make the change very young, hence why he's large and definitely male. It also explains why he tends to get so irked if one of his antlers is broken. Teeny bit of insecurity there. 

If you want any more info on him, just lemme know, I'm happy to add it. 

**Author's Note:**

> http://betta132.deviantart.com/art/Dominus-Silvarum-524284277 That's his picture there. Also a vulture. He attracts vultures sometimes, and he's somewhat fond of them. It's partly because they're one of the few things that won't run from him. Also, he likes how useful they are to nature. And he kinda thinks they're pretty.  
> Oh, and they often bring him food. They're fairly intelligent, intelligent enough to recognize him as a kirin, and they want to offer him gifts.  
> Crows sometimes give him things, but they're wary of him. Very smart birds who aren't sure if it's okay to be around something that's constantly on fire. He does have a few shiny things crows have brought him, and he's probably going to end up with a ring or something at some point.


End file.
